High value photography lenses with low price listing

[sharpcoldsteel]

As is starting to look like a pattern to me , i`m trying to figure what`s going on so i could avoid being ripped. So we have the following listing requirements :

- high value photo camera lenses (ex. Sony 70-200 F2.8 GM) which are usually selling for around £1300 (used) , are being listed with as low as £500-£700 prices.

- the seller is on eBay since only the day the item has been listed    ////   or   /////   the seller has only buying feedback and no selling feedback.

- after a couple of days the listing is usually deactived i belive, as when i`m trying to reach the item it says : "We looked everywhere. Look like this page is missing"

- Also the listings have several accurate pictures of the item which doesn`t return anything in google reverse image search + a believable description of the item.

What`s your take on these type of listings , are these 100% scam , are there similar cases in other selling categories ? (i`m only looking in the photography department).  What`s the worse case scenario that could happen, seller sending an empty box/similar weighted (no value) item  ? 

Thank you for your insights, i actually restrained myself a couple of time from buying these items, as per saying goes " if it`s too good to be true , it usually is" .

[kathiec]

What you've described screams SCAM. When you see the page missing response it means eBay discovered the scam and kicked the seller off. Often the seller will be back with a new ID within a few days. The worst case scenario is that the seller sends a trinket to an address in your zip code, the tracking then shows delivered, and you lose an item not received case.

Unfortunately there are a good number of scammers on eBay. That you even have to ask if this scenario is a scam indicates to me that you need to start out buying lower value items until you get a bit more familiar with the types of scams you can encounter. But congrats on coming here and asking before you fell for this one.

[shipscript]

@sharpcoldsteel 

I encourage you to report any listings like those you describe, where the item is half price, the seller has no selling feedback, or where the feedback for that seller is for totally unrelated items or possibly in a different currency (often a hijacked account). Each listing has a report option near the description. If you see the red flags I mentioned, feel free to report the listing.  The UK site may have a different set of reporting options, but this is what I would select here on the US site:

When reporting the listing, select these options:
1. Listing practices
2. Fraudulent listing activities
3. You suspect that a listing is fraudulent

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@sharpcoldsteel,

"after a couple of days the listing is usually deactived i belive, as when i`m trying to reach the item it says : "We looked everywhere. Look like this page is missing".

Since you posted your topic on the U.S. based (ebay.com) site's community, it is probably because you were doing some searching on this site. If your home site is the U.K. one (ebay.co.uk)  and you add a U.S. located item on your watch list. It may not show up on your watch list on your home site's page because the seller does not ship to either the U.K. or Romania. That is why you may get the "we searched everywhere..." notice.  You may want to start checking the page addresses and the countries the seller will ship to, before adding them to your watch list.

"So we have the following listing requirements :

- high value photo camera lenses (ex. Sony 70-200 F2.8 GM) which are usually selling for around £1300 (used) , are being listed with as low as £500-£700 prices.

Since you do not have a lot of experience using ebay,  are you checking to see if the lower priced lenses are an auction starting bid price, as opposed to a Buy It Now price?   Auctions are usually started at below trending prices.  In eBay's starting to sell information, they encourage sellers to start auctions at a low price to: Encourage bidding".  That often does not work out well for new sellers.

- the seller is on eBay since only the day the item has been listed ////"

A newly registered seller who lists an item as Buy It Now, for less than half the trending price is likely to be a scammer.  Restraining yourself from buying because the price is too good to be true, has always been a good idea. 

"or ///// the seller has only buying feedback and no selling feedback".

Many people have an account they buy on, Some for quite awhile, before they start to sell.  That does not automatically make them a scammer. 

  However, there is a good chance there will be issues with their first sales, because many new sellers do not know that ebay will place a 21 day hold on a new seller's first few payments, no matter how many items they have bought, and they do not know about the hold or how to deal with it to get the funds released sooner. The same thing will happen if a seller has not sold anything in over a year.

What may indicate a scam or hijacked account is: Buying and possibly selling feedback that is all over a year old, except for 1-2 purchases in the last year to 6 months.  If there is selling feedback it is not for selling items in the same category, you are shopping in. Ex: Previous items were all household ones, not photographic equipment. 

Doing reverse image searches is a good idea, especially if the item price is a low or too good to be true one.  If the only results are the image you have looked up, you may not be dealing with a scammer.  If the seller's description is not just the Mfr.'s specifications copied and pasted, and there is mentions of flaws, it can be a legitimate, but inexperienced seller. 

In the past, most of the reports of scams from hijacked accounts, included mentions of photos pulled from older listings or from other sites.  I have been helping others on these boards almost daily for years, and it has been quite awhile since seeing a report about a buyer buying something from a hijacked account.

What`s the worse case scenario that could happen, seller sending an empty box/similar weighted (no value) item?".

The worst case scenario is that a buyer receiving an empty box or something else, files an Item Not Received (INR)  dispute rather than a Not As Described (NAD) dispute. You can only file one kind of dispute, you can't change it afterwards, if you filed the wrong one. You need to do a Google search for "ebay's Money Back Guarantee Policy - ebay.uk"   or which ever site you registered on.  Read the policy and click on the related articles in it, paying attention to the time frames. I suggest saving the link for possible future use.

The most common scam these days is the use of fake tracking numbers. A scammer sends something (often an envelope or small empty box, to an address near the buyer, that is not the buyer's. The buyer not receiving anything,  files and INR dispute. because there is a Delivered scan, ebay's automated system will decide in favor of the seller. When that happens, the buyer has to come up with the proof ebay will accept themselves, or they will also lose an appeal.   If that happens to you, go to your home site's community and ask how to deal with a fake tracking number scam. 

[simba6]

Those too good to be true listings always are.  Often the fake tracking number scam is used. A cheap item is sent to an address near yours. That is often good enough to get the item marked delivered and eBay will accept it.

[sharpcoldsteel]

Thank you all for your answers , so much information to enforce my trusty intuition as sometimes the urge to get a bargain is so **bleep** strong.  

I am indeed using the eBay UK , i forgot there is a community page for both UK and USA , my mistake. 

If you guys would like to clarify some things that are still unclear to me, i`m very thankful ; this kind of scam with fake tracking number , i`m not sure i understand , how can that tracking show the item as delivered if is not my adress and noone will actually pick the item (sign for it) ?  In my residency country (Romania) the shipping procedure for a site that hosts used items  is that the courier contacts the buyer first via phone and arrange a meeting (also we pay afterwards the package is inspected making sure it is what was orderd).  I know they are different countries/sites but just showing a comparison. I`m not actually new to eBay , i`ve purchased hundreds of items over the years, ranging from small cheap items to even some camera lenses with values as high as £900 (fairly priced tough not cheapo) , both auction and buy it now type of listings.  I also read the forums from time to time, but had a brake from eBay for like 2 years and it seems i never heard of the "fake tracking scam" until now so i must look into it.  

Again , thank you all for the heads up ! 

[soh.maryl]

Bottom line here:  If/when a listing seems even a tiny bit suspicious, hit the back button and find another listing.  You will be spending too much money to risk it.  

That scam where there is tracking but the buyer has not actually received it causes a problem because the buyer cannot open an INR case.  The best he can do is get documentation from the courier that the delivery address was not his.  Then he has to submit it to eBay.  The process takes awhile.